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What if DreamWorks Pictures/DreamWorks Animation was founded in 1934?/Headin’ South
Headin' South is a 1942 American animated musical comedy-adventure film produced by Dora Wilson Productions, in an partnership with MGM Cartoon Studio (as the two studios' first full-length feature film), and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It follows the story of a young duckling named Janice (voiced by Shirley Temple, in her only animated-film role) who discovers most of the ducks, including her parents, didn't return from south after migration. So, she sets off by attempting to go south, but ends up getting lost in the process, where she then befriends with a raccoon named Ringo (voiced by Phil Silvers) who helps her in her quest to find her family and the rest of the ducks, while they face the challenges and dangers of a hostile world of crooks, villains and monsters. The film released on June 11, 1942. The film had received positive reviews, but was a poor performance commercially and wasn't released outside from United States due to World War II. It eventually made a profit in its 1946 reissue and became a cult classic after its re-releases on theaters, television airings and home video releases and is now considered one of the greatest animated films ever made, with a rare 100% rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes. Headin' South was added to the United States National Film Registry for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Two direct-to.video sequels Headin' South Again and Headin' South Pole were released in 2002 and 2010, respectively. Plot In Duck Square, Iowa, a little girl duckling named Janice is finally off from school for the upcoming winter season, along with other children. On their way back home, one of Janice friends, Otto, the otter, looses his kite up in the tree, which Janice has to climb up to retrieve the kite back to him, with Otto, Possi, the possum, and Digger, the mole, watching her for her safety. Janice then approaches a hawk's nest, while made it up in the tree. The massive hawk then woke up after Janice successfully got her hand on Otto's kite from the nest. Janice and her friends flees to escape while the hawk chase after them for the attack, until Mallard, Janice's father, saves the three young critters from the ferocious bird and takes Janice home where he and her mother Millard tell her that they both are heading off to south, along with other ducks due to migration as Millard makes a call to Grandpa Duck to come and babysit Janice once they're gone. After Grandpa Duck arrived, Millard and Mallard takes off to south while Janice sadly watches and wishes she can go to south, despite being told by her parents that she's too young. TBD Production Development of Headin’ South started in early 1938, a year after Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hollywood’s first full-length animated motion picture, was a critical and commercial success, which caught the attention of Dora Wilson, who had her willing to produce her own animated feature to replicate Disney's success. She first asked Republic Pictures, the distributor of Dreamtoons shorts, to be the distributor for her first animated full-length project, but turned down. Wilson asked many other movie studios for an distributing deal for her film such as Paramount, Columbia, United Artists and 20th Century Fox, which also rejected it, until Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) agreed her and TBD Fellow animation producers Walter Lantz, Paul Terry and Leon Schlesinger all also considered producing animated feature films, but after seeing the disappointing box-office performances of Walt Disney's new films Pinocchio and Fantasia (both 1940) and Max Fleischer's Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941), they cancelled any potential animated feature projects. However, Dora Wilson was the only of them who still had continued the project. TBD Characters and cast Main characters * Janice Duck - Voiced by Shirley Temple; the film's main protagonist who is an adventurous, innocent, coy, and optimistic young yellow female mallard duckling. * Ringo - Voiced by Phil Silvers; a fast-talking, easy-going, music-loving raccoon who befriends Janice. Other characters * Mallard Duck - Voiced by Pinto Colvig; Janice's father who is often lazy, clumsy, silly, but serious. * Millard Duck - Voiced by Barbara Jo Allen; Janice's mother. * Grandpa Duck - Voiced by Mel Blanc; an elder duck who is Janice's grandfather and Millard's father, who is retired from flying and has his job to babysit Janice, while Millard and Mallard left. * Mayor Gobble - Voiced by Bert Lahr; a turkey who is the mayor of Southernville. * Craney, Ratso and Armadilla - Voiced by Ray Bolger, Mel Blanc and Vivien Leigh; the crane, rat and armadillo trio performers for Steamboat Saloon. * Robert Rabbit - Voiced by Billy Gilbert; a piano playing rabbit in Steamboat Saloon and also a friend of Ringo. * Otto - Voiced by Dickie Jones; a boy otter who is Janice's classmate. * Digger - Voiced by George McFarland; a boy mole who is Janice's classmate. * Possi - Voiced by Cammie King; a girl possum who is Janice's classmate. * Mr. Owl - Voiced by Walter Catlett; an owl who is Janice's teacher. Antagonists * Hawk - a bird of prey and the film's main antagonist who often follows Janice in her journey, attempting to eat her, but failed as it later got defeated at the end. * Con DeFox - Voiced by Vincent Price; a con-man red fox who attempts to capture Janice for their meal by tricking her, but gets defeated by her and Ringo and get arrested by the police at the end. He later made a cameo appearance in Shrek as one of the exiled fairytale creatures (as well as the same fox from Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio). * Robert Wildcat - Voiced by Billy Bletcher; an serious bobcat and one of Con DeFox's henchmen. * Silly Snake - a mute, dimwitted snake and one of Con DeFox's henchmen. * Mr. Wolfward Wolf - Voiced by Edward G. Robinson; a scarred, cigar-smoking timber wolf gangster who has kidnapped all the ducks (including Janice's parents) to use them as slaves in his old abandoned mansion, and plans to use Janice for his greedy plans. He ends up being eaten alive by an giant alligator. He bears similarities to Carface Caruthers from DreamWorks' later animated film All Dogs Go to Heaven. Deleted characters Several other characters were scrapped from the final version for any reasons, such as for favor of other characters, to keep the focus on other characters, to avoid controversies and backlashes, to avoid various issues, to re-write, to avoid delays, etc. * Ally the Gator - a goofy, clumsy yet loyal likable alligator who is one of Ringo’s two sidekicks. * Clifford the Crow - a crow who is one of Ringo's two sidekicks. * The Hunter and his Hounds - a human hunter and his pack of hounds. * Fee and Line - two cats who are attempting to catch Janice. They would be used instead for All Dogs Go to Heaven. * Elderly Butterfly - a ill-tempered grouchy old butterfly who hates that Janice gets into his property. Songs * No More School (sung by Janice, voiced by Shirley Temple) * Headin' South (sung by Janice, voiced by Shirley Temple) * Nothing's 'Boutta Distract Me (sung by Ringo, voiced by Phil Silvers) * Southern Medley (sung by the southern critters of Steamboat Saloon, voiced by Ray Bolger, Mel Blanc, Vivien Leigh, Billy Gilbert and the MGM Studio Chorus) * Whatta Jamboree (My, Oh, My Me) (sung by Janice, Ringo and the critters of Steamboat Saloon, voiced by Shirley Temple, Phil Silvers, Ray Bolger, Mel Blanc, Vivien Leigh, Billy Gilbert and the MGM Studio Chorus) * Headin' South (Reprise) (sung the the MGM Studio Chorus) Release Box office Critical reception Re-releases Theatrical re-release dates * June 12, 1946 * November, 11, 1962 (20th Anniversary) * November, 11, 1967 (25th Anniversary) * March 1, 1976 * January 1, 1987 (45th Anniversary) * November 20, 1992 (50th Anniversary) * December 1, 1999 (limited release) * July 12, 2001 (in Argentina; in a double feature with A Thousand Attempts and One Invention) Home media In 1989, the film was first released on VHS by DreamWorks Home Video, with a distribution deal with MGM/AU Home Video. TBD TBD In late 2012, Headin' South ''was re-released on a 70th anniversary DVD/Blu-ray edition released by Paramount Home Entertainment. TBD Legacy Sequels TBD Video game TBD Comic books TBD Reboot TBD Misc. TBD Ownership In 1947, after the deal between Dora Wilson and MGM was done, the rights of ''Headin' South were given to Dora Wilson, due to MGM failed to renew the rights of the film. Trivia * Headin' South is the first animated film and the first feature film to be produced by DreamWorks. * It is also MGM's first animated feature film. * It is DreamWorks' first joint venture film. * There are several cameos of the characters appeared in other medias, particularly in other DreamWorks films, such as TBD, The Bre'r Rabbit Tale (1996), TBD, Shrek trilogy (2001-2010), TBD Quotes TBD ---- Con DeFox: (repeated line) Leave it to Con DeFox! ---- TBD Category:Theories Category:Alternate Reality Category:DreamWorks Animation Category:Traditional animated Category:Animated Films Category:DreamWorks Category:Dreamworks Films Category:Dreamworks Pictures Category:DreamWorks Pictures films Category:MGM Category:1942 Category:Ducks Category:1940s films Category:1942 films Category:Road films Category:MGM films Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Category:Metro Goldwyn Mayer Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated films